Left the Okaloacoochee Slough after
coffee and shake heading for Tampa via St Petersburg which is more
scenic than the Toll route option. Arrived in time for Cindy to help
pickup the kids from school. Kim arrived soon after us for the
impending kid sitting while Amanda and Danny went on their four day
cruise to Mexico, which included a balcony suite plus horseback
riding on the beach.
With school and their after-school
activities (mainly soccer), we were kept busy until after they were
all in bed. Amanda's pre-organization of copious notes and pre-made
lunches was a definite big help. The park just around the corner is
the perfect diversion for the kids' activities of biking, roller
blading and scooters. While here, Cindy inherited Hadley's chest
infection which is currently still tormenting her for the rest of
this section of our trip.
After Amanda and Danny returned, we
took advantage of their hospitality to stay an extra couple of days
to prepare for the Brooklyn connection. Also, the camper, trailer and
Cindy's car stayed on the road with the neighbours keeping watch.
Our flight to Brooklyn was delayed over
one hour which meant we landed at La Guardia Airport (LGA) just in
time for rush hour. On the flight, we watched Bohemian Rhapsody; a
fantastic film and a well deserved best actor award for Freddy
Mercury's portrayer. The cab took an hour in the stop and go traffic
to deliver us to Shari and Zach's place.
The next morning, we walked the girls
to school then toured the neighbourhood after eating a delicious
bagel while waiting for the shops to open. Shopped at Stinky's,
Sahadi's & Park Natural Foods then returned to pick up Dahlia at
preschool. Had really good Ethiopian food delivered for dinner; a
first for me.
The weekend started with two to three
inches of snow but still went with Zach to a humungus WholeFood store
for the weekly groceries. Joined the children outside while they
built a snowman then went to the park for a snowball fight. Went to
the girls swim lessons in Manhattan before having a great chili for
dinner. The last couple of nights we have watched some neat TV on the
cooking channel covering Thai and Korean food.
Walked to their local market then late
lunch at Shari's Aunt Arlene along with her Mum and Dad plus sister's
family. The meal was phenomenal plus 19 year old Ollie, Shari's cat,
was the hit with the kids.
With a winter storm warning in full
force, we changed our Monday flight from 08:00 to 11:30. All this
fuss with a snow day for the kids – New York received two inches of
wet snow!
On our return to Tampa, we stayed one
night with Amanda and Danny before heading south again for another
Miami memorial. Stay tuned for another southern update...
Tidbits:
- Kids music: https://itsjojosiwa.com and “Baby Shark.”
- Into PodCasts, try “Scene On Radio” from Duke University.
- Google's non JPEG picture format is a pain...
SPOT:
- The Burkes in Tampa 2019 02 20-27 & 03 04: https://goo.gl/maps/yPu4BSpkwUK2
- The Bowers in Brooklyn 2019 02 28-03 03: https://goo.gl/maps/n36MSHt3ywt
2025-02-15